On Saturday, Major League Baseball has a busy afternoon slate to start off the month of June, but there’s also a strong nighttime slate of fantasy baseball available on DraftKings. The main slate gets underway at 7:15 p.m. ET and includes the five games scheduled under the lights. There are three divisional matchups on the board along with an interleague game between the Yankees and Giants and an NL matchup between the Cardinals and the Phillies. There are plenty of potent offenses in play along with some interesting pitching plays to consider.
With 10 teams scheduled to take the diamond, let’s take a look at some of my top plays for Saturday night.
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PITCHER
Stud
Ranger Suarez, Philadelphia Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals ($10,000) – Suarez has been outstanding this season for the Phillies and is in a fantasy-friendly home matchup Saturday night. The 28-year-old lefty has gone 9-1 in his 11 starts this season with a minuscule 1.75 ERA, 2.68 FIP and 9.6 K/9. He earned at least 16.9 DKFP in every start this season with over 30 DKFP in five starts. He has nine strikeouts or more in three of his last four outings and has only allowed more than two three runs one time all season. Suarez will look to continue his success against St. Louis, who has the third-lowest batting average in the MLB against lefties, hitting just .211 as a team with an 81 team wRC+ against southpaws, the third-worst in the MLB. In such a good matchup, Suarez is worth considering paying up for if you can save salary in other spots.
Value
Cal Quantrill, Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers ($5,500) – It may seem crazy to pick a pitcher as cheap as Quantrill in this brutal matchup against the Dodgers, but there are several reasons to love him as a value play. He’s so much cheaper than any other viable option on this slate that he offers significant savings which can help you upgrade multiple other positions. He comes into this start in great form and doesn’t have to deal with the Coors Field factor since his Rockies are on the road for this matchup. Quantrill has posted over 20 DKFP in each of his last five starts while going 4-0 with a 1.41 ERA, 2.87 FIP and 32 strikeouts in 31 2⁄3 innings. Quantrill defeated the Padres, Giants and Phillies during that run, so he’s been pitching well against good teams. He’ll face a tough Dodgers lineup this Saturday, but even if he doesn’t dominate, he should be able to return value at this low salary. The Dodgers lineup is definitely elite, but they have had a little bit of a lull lately, scoring five runs or fewer in six of their last eight games. Over the last 30 days, they rank outside the top 10 in runs scored and team batting average, looking fallible. Their relative struggles and Quantrill’s hot streak make him look just too cheap to pass up this Saturday.
INFIELD
Stud
Ezequiel Tovar, Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers ($4,800) – Tovar has been scorching hot for the Rockies lately, showing why the team gave him a huge contract extension before the season. After picking up three hits and a home run on Friday night in the series opener, Tovar is hitting .352 (32-for-91) with five homers and a .434 wOBA over his last 20 games. He went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in one of his last eight games but has hit safely in all the rest of those contests. He’s up to .294 with a .351 wOBA on the season after collecting multiple hits in 10 of his last 16 games. Getting him for under $5,000 in his matchup with Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($9,600) makes sense as the Rockies try to make it back-to-back wins over their divisional foe.
Stud
Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants vs. New York Yankees ($4,600) – Chapman has also been rounding into form and is a strong mid-range on Saturday. In his first season in San Francisco, Chapman has been regularly hitting cleanup and is hitting .347 (17-for-49) over his last 13 games with six doubles, three homers and a .475 wOBA, averaging 12.5 DKFP per game over that stretch. He and the Giants have one of the better matchups on the slate as they face Cody Poteet ($6,000), who the Yankees will call up from Triple-A to make his second start of the season, this time filling in for Clarke Schmidt (lat).
Value
Ty France, Seattle Mariners vs. Los Angeles Angels ($3,200) – France played the hero on Friday night with a solo home run in the eighth inning to give the Mariners a 5-4 win over the Angels as they moved four games ahead of the Rangers in the AL West. France finished that game just a triple short of the cycle with multiple hits for the third time in his last six games. During that short span, he went 9-for-20 (.450) with a double and two home runs. He’s hitting .296 with five homers and a .398 wOBA over his last 21 games and has helped the Mariners’ offense start rolling. As has regularly been the case throughout his career, he has strong splits against lefties this season, hitting .275 with a .372 wOBA against southpaws. He’ll be on the strong side of his splits against Reid Detmers ($6,500) and the Angels on Saturday.
Value
Ryan Bliss, Seattle Mariners vs. Los Angeles Angels ($2,000) – I’ve been picking Bliss all week since he was called up to help fill in for Jorge Polanco (hamstring). He is still available at the minimum salary for this matchup with Detmers and brings a lot of upside. In his three games in the MLB, he is 0-for-5 but does have a walk and two runs scored. He showed both power and speed potential in Triple-A, hitting .247 with a .372 wOBA and 28 stolen bases in 50 games. I am still here for the upside he brings in multiple categories and the flexibility he provides to chase power bats in other spots.
OUTFIELD
Stud
Aaron Judge, New York Yankees at San Francisco Giants ($6,500) – Even in a less-than-ideal matchup against Logan Webb ($8,000), Judge has been productive enough to consider paying up for. He’s exactly the kind of hitter it’s worth saving up to go get since he brings both a high ceiling and a high floor with multiple ways to return elite value even at his high price. Judge hit two more home runs on Friday night and has 20 taters on the season. Fourteen of those 20 homers have come in his last 24 games, and during that stretch, he has hit a scalding .393 (33-for-84) with 25 extra-base hits giving him the unreal numbers of a .631 ISO and .611 wOBA during that stretch. After absolutely crushing May, Judge will look to keep rolling in June, and he starts the month as the MLB leader in home runs, wOBA, ISO and virtually every other power stat that exists.
Stud
Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners vs. Los Angeles Angels ($4,700) – Rodriguez has good splits against lefties this year and had a much better May after a slow start. He is hitting .328 against southpaws with a .366 wOBA. He is hitting .303 (19-for-76) over his last 19 games with three homers and five stolen bases. He is also 3-for-6 with a home run against Detmers in his career, so this should be a good spot for him to stay hot this Saturday.
Value
Heliot Ramos, San Francisco Giants vs. New York Yankees ($2,900) – Ramos struggled in his first tastes of the MLB, but the 24-year-old has been very solid this season. Before getting called up, he hit .296 with eight homers and a .410 wOBA in Triple-A, and in his 21 games with the Giants, he is hitting .280, two homers and a .339 wOBA. Before going 0-for-3 on Friday, he was hitting .300 in his last 10 games including two homers, two doubles and a .385 wOBA. He’s a solid value play in Saturday’s matchup against Poteet.
Value
Stuart Fairchild, Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago Cubs ($2,800) – Fairchild is solid bargain play whenever the Reds face a lefty. He’s hitting .311 against southpaws this season but only .079 against righties. He has three homers, a .393 wOBA and a 152 wRC+ in the split on the season, so there’s upside with him against lefty Justin Steele ($7,500) on Saturday. He hasn’t started a game in the last week but had 20 DKFP in his most recent start, which came against lefty James Paxton last Friday when he also hit leadoff. Especially if Fairchild is atop the lineup, he has a lot of upside for an outfielder under $3,000.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $125K Relay Throw [$25K to 1st]
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and customer (my username is z.thompson) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
